Corridor Man Read Online Free PDF

I’m interested in that Geo Metro you’ve got tucked away in the back corner there.”
    “You’re kidding?” Fast Eddie said and appeared crest fallen.
    “You’ve got nine hundred on it. I can give you seven fifty.”
    “No can do. She’s got fairly recent tires and I had my team go over her, gave it a tune up, pretty new wiper blades. The radio works.” Then he added, “Sometimes,” just under his breath.
    “Those tires look like the tread isn’t much more than a memory. I can give you seven fifty, cash.”
    Fast Eddie gave him the once-over and said, “Eight hundred, no questions asked.”
    “Seven fifty and you can ask all the questions you want. I got nothing to hide.”
    He seemed to think about that, shrugged like he didn’t believe Bobby and said, “What the hell?”
    Bobby paid him and then spent fifteen minutes filling out the rudimentary paper work. After some gentle coaxing the thing started and he drove off the lot. He drove back to the public library where he logged onto one of their computers to fabricate his car insurance information.

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    “Thank you, Mr. Custer,” Marci said. He had just handed a clipboard back to her with the firm’s contractor form filled out and a copy of the insurance card he’d dummied up on the library computer.
    “Please, call me Bobby.”
    Marci smiled in a way that suggested she wouldn’t dream of it.
    “Is Noah Denton available, I’d like to touch base with him if he has a couple of minutes.”
    He sat in the lobby for another twenty minutes rereading the same Sports Illustrated from a week ago before she called him.
    “Mr. Custer, Mr. Denton will see you now. I believe you know the way?” Marci said, then smiled as if to suggest she couldn’t wait to get him out of her lobby.
    He walked into Denton’s office and greeted him with, “Hi Noah, thanks for taking me on. I appreciate the opportunity.”
    Denton looked up from a file and motioned him forward. He laid his pen down, took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose as he collected his thoughts and waited for a long moment before he spoke.
    “Please, don’t bother to sit down. Let’s get something straight. From here on in, I’m Mr. Denton. Not that you have to really remember that, because I can’t foresee the occasion where we would need to interact. You are a contract employee which means you are employed for a very finite amount of time. You’ll fulfill the terms of your specific contract and then vacate our premises. While under contract you’ll receive your marching orders from Marci, at the front desk. I have difficulty envisioning the need for you to venture anywhere beyond Marci’s desk. Should you need a restroom there is one down in the first floor lobby.”
    “I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity, Noah. That’s all.”
    “So noted, and it’s Mr. Denton.”
    Bobby nodded.
    “Anything else?”
    “No, you’ve made it pretty clear.”
    “Then get out of my office,” Denton said and motioned toward the door with his chin dismissing Bobby.

Chapter Twelve
     
     
    The following morning Bobby was shuttling individuals to and from the firm’s office for depositions. Two geriatric men were his morning passengers. One of them had a cane he kept pounding on the floor of the back seat just as he reached the punch line in a long list of non-stop jokes.
    Bobby was allowed forty-five minutes for lunch so he high-tailed it back to the McDonald’s across from Fast Eddie’s. The oil light came on just as he was leaving the drive-thru and he ended up eating his cheeseburger while he watched two quarts of oil pour into the engine.
    He picked up a woman named Maxine at one-fifteen. She looked twenty years older than he suspected she actually was. Her skin seemed weathered, maybe too much time laying in the sun or working outdoors. Her hair had been dyed a sort of dishwater blonde sometime back and now sported a good inch of substantially darker roots.